Treasury 10-year yields at almost 4-month low on haven demand

This month’s payrolls report “underscores the need to wait and see how the economy develops before declaring victory,” Dudley said yesterday in a speech in Staten Island. “I don’t think we should be complacent” because “unemployment is unacceptably high,” he said.

Applications for jobless benefits rose to 350,000 last week from 346,000 in the previous period, according to a Bloomberg News survey of economists before tomorrow’s Labor Department report. Employers added 88,000 jobs in March, the least in nine months, the department said on April 5.

The index of U.S. leading indicators is forecast to rise 0.1% in March, compared with 0.5% in February, according to another survey before the figure is released tomorrow.

The Fed will release its Beige Book business survey today. Last month’s report, which is based on responses from 12 regional central banks, showed the U.S. economy grew at a modest to moderate pace. Fed policy makers have maintained purchases of government and mortgage debt at $85 billion a month in a bid to spur growth and boost employment.

“Tapering the Fed’s asset purchases seems to be out of the window, especially after Dudley’s comments,” said Marc Ostwald, a London-based rates strategist at Monument Securities Ltd.

The central bank is today scheduled to buy as much as $1.75 billion of securities due from February 2036 to February 2043, according to the New York Fed’s website.